The Budapest Cinematography Masterclass (BCM) was founded by Zsigmond Vilmos, ASC, 20 years ago for selected university cinematography students from around the world. Over the past 20 years, courses have been led by Oscar-winner Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC, László Kovács, ASC, Billy Williams, ASC, John Schwartzman, ASC and Elemér Ragályi, HSC.

This year the Masterclass was held from August 28 to September 11 by Hungarian cinematographers Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC – the sole winner of both Oscar® and Emmy® awards – and Emmy award-winner Elemér Ragályi, HSC. Presentations were also given by several European university professors including Benjamin Bergery, Nic Knowland, Michael Hammond.

During the course 16 working Directors of Photography, each filmed a scene on film sets specially built by Korda Studio, with the help of another 26 cinematographers who assist in composition, lighting, and acting. Students used Fujifilm new negative film stock 35mm ETERNA Vivid 500T 8547, and expressed great admiration for the material. Particularly popular were the color saturation, the superior sharpness with vivid color and the beautiful skin tones. The school also used ETERNA-RDI and ETERNA-CP 3514 for postproduction with the support of the Hungarian Filmlab. The two weeks of non-stop shooting was an inspiring time for all the Fujifilm-sponsored students.

The Masterclass is registered and supported by the MEDIA program, and has been recognized by the program as an official postgraduate study course. The school was supported by MEDIA, CILECT, FUJIFILM, Panavision, the Hungarian National Cultural Fund, the University of Film and Theatre, Korda Studios, Sparks, the Hungarian Filmlab, and BK Studio, and is produced by Cinema-Film.